Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Dynamics Of Mesoscale Offshore Wind Flows From An Observational And Modeling Perspective: Implications For Offshore Wind Energy, Elizabeth J. Mccabe

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Mid-latitude coastal regions of the United States, such as the New York Bight (NYB), are playing a major role in the development of offshore wind energy. However, mesoscale dynamics of local and regional circulations in these offshore waters are poorly understood. The sea breeze, especially in the NYB, will play a key role in the development of offshore wind energy, given the favorable wind speeds and high capacity factors during periods of peak demand. With limited vertical wind profile observations available offshore, the ability to accurately forecast and understand the spatiotemporal extent of the sea breeze and often associated low-level …

Development Of Group Iii-V Quantum Confinement-Enabled Detectors: Bias-Tunable Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector (Qwip) And Quantum Dot Scintillation Detector (Qdsd), Gyana R. Biswal

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation discloses the physics, fabrication, characterization, and analysis of two novel types of group III-V semiconductor detectors relying on quantum confinement of carriers, namely voltage-tunable quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIP) and a high-yield ultrafast quantum dot scintillation detector (QDSD). Both QWIP and QDSD heterostructures presented here were grown on 3” GaAs (001) substrates using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).

A major part of the dissertation focuses on development of the voltage-tunable QWIPs targeting detection in the mid-wave infrared region (MWIR) (3μm -5μm) and long-wave infrared region (LWIR) (8μm -12μm) with control of sensitivity by the applied bias. The QWIPs utilize …

Boundary Conditions, Symmetries, And Bootstrap In 2d Conformal Field Theory, Yucong Cai

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation contains two parts of study on the Friedan states and on the conformal bootstrap with symmetries.

The Friedan states are potential physical boundary states of the free boson. However, they exhibited a continuous spectrum in the open string sector, in contrast to more standard examples. The explicit expressions for the density of states of the Friedan states is obtained. Some pathologies and possible contradictions of these states are explored. The $g$ functions of the Friedan states are shown to be infinite, suggesting an infinite number of degrees of freedom in the theory.

The modular conformal bootstrap using the …

Identification Of Fentanyl And Fentanyl Analogs Found In Human Urine Using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, Adam M. Fisher

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Identification of fentanyl and its analogs in unknown samples is a frequent practice completed in forensic crime labs, as the fentanyl epidemic continues. With the continued increase in illicit drug use, crime labs are not able to keep up with the flooding of new fentanyl analogs being developed, resulting in new analogs slipping past the crime labs’ authority. This research is to start to develop a database of commonly found fentanyl analogs in New York State. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) is a widely used method for the detection and identification of illicit drugs in forensic crime labs. A database that …

Recdreamer: Consistent Text-To-3d Generation Via Uniform Score Distillation, Chenxi Zheng, Yihong Lin, Bangzhen Liu, Xuemiao Xu, Yongwei Nie, Shengfeng He

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Current text-to-3D generation methods based on score distillation often suffer from geometric inconsistencies, leading to repeated patterns across different poses of 3D assets. This issue, known as the Multi-Face Janus problem, arises because existing methods struggle to maintain consistency across varying poses and are biased toward a canonical pose. While recent work has improved pose control and approximation, these efforts are still limited by this inherent bias, which skews the guidance during generation. To address this, we propose a solution called RecDreamer, which reshapes the underlying data distribution to achieve more consistent pose representation. The core idea behind our method …

Measuring Model Alignment For Code Clone Detection Using Causal Interpretation, Shamsa Abid, Xuemeng Cai, Lingxiao Jiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Deep Neural Network-based models have demonstrated high accuracy for semantic code clone detection. However, the lack of generalization poses a threat to the trustworthiness and reliability of these models. Furthermore, the black-box nature of these models makes interpreting the model’s decisions very challenging. Currently, there is only a limited understanding of the semantic code clone detection behavior of existing models. There is a lack of transparency in understanding how a model identifies semantic code clones and the exact code components influencing its prediction. In this paper, we introduce the use of a causal interpretation framework based on the Neyman-Rubin causal …

Impact Of Achievement-Oriented Gamification In Erp Systems: Examining Subjective And Objective User Outcomes, E. Adeborna, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, L. Motiwalla

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This research explores the effect of gamification using achievement-oriented affordances in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems on subjective (behavioral intention) and objective (performance) outcomes. Drawing on the cognitive-affectiveconative (CAC) framework, a research model was developed to explain behavioral intention and tested in a pilot experiment with 63 participants. These participants completed a post-study questionnaire for assessing the impact of gamification on users’ behavioral intention that is mediated by CAC constructs: focused immersion, enjoyment, and selfrewarding experience. Preliminary results show that gamification enhances enjoyment and self-rewarding experience, which in turn positively influence and fully mediate behavioral intention. Objective performance outcomes were …

Demo2test: Transfer Testing Of Agent In Competitive Environment With Failure Demonstrations, Jianming Chen, Yawen Wang, Junjie Wang, Xiaofei Xie, Dandan Wang, Qing Wang, Fanjiang Xu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The competitive game between agents exists in many critical applications, such as military unmanned aerial vehicles. It is urgent to test these agents to reduce the significant losses caused by their failures. Existing studies mainly are to construct a testing agent that competes with the target agent to induce its failures. These approaches usually focus on a single task, requiring much more time for multi-task testing. However, if the previously tested tasks (source tasks) and the task to be tested (target task) share similar agents or task objectives, the transferable knowledge in source tasks can potentially increase the effectiveness of …

Learning To Rank Aspects And Opinions For Comparative Explanations, Trung Hoang Le, Hady Wirawan Lauw

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Comparative recommendation explanations help to make sense of recommendations by comparing a recommended item along some aspects of interest with one or many items being considered. This work extends the notion of comparative explanations, by going beyond merely better/worse statements, to further incorporate aspect-level opinions for more informative comparisons. To enhance the quality of both the personalized recommendation and the explanation, we incorporate optimization objectives that preserve relative rankings of aspects and opinions, in addition to the classical rankings of overall preferences for items. We integrate the multiple ranking objectives and multi-tensor factorization together. Experiments on datasets of different domains …

Synthesizing Multi-Person And Rare Pose Images For Human Pose Estimation, Liuqing Zhao, Zichen Tian, Zou Peng, Richang Hong, Qianru Sun

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Human pose estimation (HPE) models underperform in recognizing rare poses because they suffer from data imbalance problems (i.e., there are few image samples for rare poses) in their training datasets. From a data perspective, the most intuitive solution is to synthesize data for rare poses. Specifically, the rule-based methods apply manual manipulations (such as Cutout and GridMask) to the existing data, so the limited diversity of the data constrains the model. An alternative method is to learn the underlying data distribution via deep generative models (such as ControlNet and HumanSD) and then sample “new data” from the distribution. This works …

Dims: Distributed Index For Similarity Search In Metric Spaces, Yifan Zhu, Chengyang Luo, Tang Qian, Lu Chen, Yunjun Gao, Baihua Zheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Similarity search finds objects that are similar to a given query object based on a similarity metric. As the amount and variety of data continue to grow, similarity search in metric spaces has gained significant attention. Metric spaces can accommodate any type of data and support flexible distanc e metrics, making similarity search in metric spaces beneficial for many real-world applications, such as multimedia retrieval, personalized recommendation, trajectory analytics, data mining, decision planning, and distributed servers. However, existing studies mostly focus on indexing metric spaces on a single machine, which faces efficiency and scalability limitations with increasing data volume and …

Transforming Urban Dynamics: Harnessing Large Language Models For Smarter Mobility, Hao Xue, Ming Jin, Shirui Pan, Flora Salim, Guansong Pang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to analyze mobility data and make mobility systems smarter by leveraging diverse data sources such as geospatial data, transportation logs, and real-time sensor data to optimize traffic flow, enhance public transportation systems, and support the development of autonomous vehicles. With the newly emerged generative AI paradigm, exemplified by large language models (LLMs), there is great potential to transform the current AI applications in mobility, transportation, and urban domains. This article provides an overview of recent efforts and aims to shed light on the challenges and future opportunities to facilitate the adaptation of LLMs for …

Including Individuals' Sense Of Self In Digital Information Privacy, Peter N. Meso, Solomon Negash, Humayun Zafar, Gurpreet Dhillon

Faculty Articles

The nature of contemporary digital ecosystems causes concerns that affect the person, the individual-self, an integral part of an individual’s information privacy calculus and hence a component of individuals’ Information Privacy Concerns (IPC). Yet, prior IPC models overlook self-focused concerns. This study articulates two constructs, termed “loss of autonomy” (i.e., autonomy) and “control over profiling” (i.e., profiling), that reflect individuals’ self-focused privacy concerns. Combining these new constructs with conventional IPC constructs that capture data-focused and device-focused concerns yields an IPC model made up of three dimensions: self-focused concerns, data-focused concerns, and device-focused concerns. The authors first develop instrument items for …

Chromatographic And Electrophoretic Analysis Of Lignin-Derived Monomers And Dimers: Extraction Method Development And Evaluation Of Cyclodextrins For Recovery, Anjam Sadik

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Biorefineries play a vital role in reducing dependence on fossil fuels and addressing global warming concerns. Unfortunately, investment in biorefineries remains limited due to economic sustainability concerns. One approach to enhance the economic viability of biorefineries is by fully utilizing the potential of feedstocks, particularly lignocellulosic biomass, which is commonly used in these processes. Traditional processing methods often alter the lignin portion of biomass, making it unsuitable for further utilization. However, when retained in its native form, lignin can serve as a valuable source of chemicals that contribute to the economic sustainability of biorefineries.

The lignin-first approach, which removes lignin …

Catalytic Deoxygenation Of Oleaginous Biomass To Renewable Diesel And Sustainable Aviation Fuel Via Decarboxylation/Decarbonylation, Chukwudalu Great Umenweke

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Several technologies have been developed to produce hydrocarbon biofuels – renewable diesel (RD) and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) – from fats, oils, and greases (FOG), with the hydroprocessing of esters and fatty acids (HEFA) representing one of the most mature pathways. In its current form, HEFA is mainly reliant on the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) reaction, which has several drawbacks since HDO requires large amounts and pressures of hydrogen, feedstocks of high purity and cost, as well as problematic sulfided catalysts that risk contaminating the biofuel product with sulfur. A process based on decarboxylation/decarbonylation (deCO_x) offers an attractive alternative to …

Insights Into Factors Influencing Radical Coupling Chemistry Of Monolignols During Lignification And Induced Changes In Plant Secondary Metabolism, Rachel Poornima Sutherland

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Lignin is a complex aromatic biopolymer and an important constituent in plant cell walls. The process of lignin biosynthesis, known as lignification, is poorly understood and challenging to study but has important implications in a variety of fields including sustainable energy, bioengineering, and materials science and is therefore of interest to pursue. In the final stage of lignification, H-, G-, and S-monolignols are oxidized by laccase and peroxidase enzymes to generate radical species that couple to form dimers and further oligomeric species to ultimately produce the lignin polymer. Biomimetic lignin model systems utilize in vitro oxidative coupling reactions as an …

Theoretical And Applied Considerations In Dynamical Sampling, Brendan Miller

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Dynamical sampling is an area of mathematics which studies the theory and applications of signals evolving through time, as well as the stable recovery of said signals from spatiotemporal measurements. This manuscript is devoted to problems which arise as theoretical considerations in signal recovery and as applications of using space-time measurements as opposed to static measurements.

For the former, we consider the problem of recovering an evolving signal via space-time measurements at irregular time intervals. To do so, we generalize the classic Kadec $1/4$ theorem using techniques of Banach $L^1(\R)$-modules. For the latter, we show how dynamical samples can be …

Universality Of Complex Valued Neural Networks, Sauvik Mondal

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Neural networks have become central to modern natural science. One of the key components of these networks is the choice of a suitable activation function. In this manuscript, we explore the selection of an optimal activation function in the context of complex-valued neural networks. We aim to characterize the activation functions $\sigma\colon \mathbb{C} \rightarrow \mathbb{C}$, where each neuron performs the operation $\mathbb{C}^N \rightarrow \mathbb{C}$, defined as: $z \mapsto \sigma(b + w^Tz)$. First, we briefly discuss the real-valued counterpart, including the importance of function approximation and the renowned universal approximation theorem. Subsequently, we examine various criteria for complex activation functions that …

Long Term Dynamics Of A Stage Structured Population Model With Nonlocal Dispersal, Md Yasin

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis is based on the 2023 paper “Dynamics of Classical Solutions of a Two-Stage Structured Population Model with Nonlocal Dispersal.” We study the long-term behavior of a population with two life stages, juvenile and adult, moving across space using nonlocal dispersal mechanism. The main goal is to understand the conditions under which the species survives or goes extinct on the long run. This is determined by a key value called the principal spectrum point, λp.

First, using results from the literature on existence of solutions for general initial value problems on Banach spaces, we establish that for any given …

Size Dependent Thermodynamic Properties Of Dppc, Zhenghao Pan

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This study explores the viability of measuring the melting transition behavior in a simple unilamellar vesicle (LUV/SUV) liposome (DPPC surfactant) system using size data from Dy- namic Light Scattering (DLS). The melting transition of phospholipid membranes has been a focal point of studies in biological systems. Conventionally, the transition temperature of a membrane system is measured using either spectroscopy or Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). By assuming that the bilayer volume is conserved, it is shown that DLS provides a transition signal comparable to that of DSC and aligns with known data. The data are fit- ted using Van’t Hoff’s equation. …

Characterization Of A Large-Scale Electrohydrodynamic Vortex Confinement Flow For Particle Agglomeration, Sanjay Dangi

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

With industrialization and the increasing use of microplastics and nanoparticle-based products, the concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the biosphere has increased due to the disposal of manufacturing waste and expired parts. If inhaled, PM2.5 can have detrimental health effects, as these particles can travel deep into the lungs and even penetrate blood vessels. Conventional fabric filters used for indoor air quality control have drawbacks, including the need for periodic filter replacement and a high-pressure drop across the filter over time, which leads to increased power consumption. In power plants, electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) are primarily used to collect fly …

Methods For Finding High Quality And Optimal Solutions Of Binary Quadratic Optimization Problems, James Haas

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

BiqAlps is an extension of the BiqCrunch project that leverages its bounding procedures within a computer cluster environment. The primary goal of this work was to investigate whether distributing the branch-and-bound tree search across multiple CPUs could improve solve times. While some problem instances demonstrated speedups of up to fivefold, others showed no measurable improvement, revealing that parallelization benefits are problem-dependent.

Beyond parallelization, BiqAlps introduces enhanced heuristics for generating high-quality initial solutions and refining existing ones. Additionally, the framework explores the impact of propagating triangle inequality cuts to child nodes during search, with the aim of accelerating bounding processes and …

Cubic Blaschke Products, Alexandra Hill

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

It is well known that Blaschke products can be classified as elliptic, hyperbolic, or parabolic. Based on the classification of the Blaschke product, we know that the Julia set is either the entire unit circle or a Cantor subset of the unit circle. For unicritical Blaschke products of degree d, it has been shown that the parabolic functions are parameterized by an epicycloid with d-1 cusps, with the interior of the epicycloid giving rise to the elliptic parameters, and the relative complement of the epicycloid within the unit disk providing the hyperbolic parameters. In this dissertation, we study in more …

Experimental Demonstration Of A Metallic Sub-Terahertz Structure For High-Gradient, High-Efficiency Acceleration, Brendan Leung

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Future accelerator facilities are increasingly constrained by the cost and footprint of conventional radiofrequency technology. Advancing both accelerating gradient and beam-to-wake energy transfer efficiency in the sub-terahertz (sub-THz) regime offers a credible path toward compact machines. Short wavelengths strengthen beam–structure coupling and enable small-aperture, high-impedance geometries; paired with tailored drive-beam current profiles, they can simultaneously raise gradient and transformer ratio.

This dissertation reports the design, fabrication, and beam testing of a sub-THz structure-wakefield accelerating (SWFA) device evaluated at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA). The emittance-exchange (EEX) beamline was used to generate prescribed longitudinal current profiles in two modes: (i) a …

Constraining The Timing And Degree Of Metamorphism In The Echo Canyon Region: Evidence For A Cryptic Contact Aureole, Keanu Montañez

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Local occurrences of andalusite and kyanite in Echo Canyon, within the Funeral Mountains metamorphic corecomplex, overprint chlorite-grade phyllites and reveal the presence of a hidden pluton and its contact aureole. Phase equilibria models indicate minimum conditions of 0.45 GPa and 535 °C in the highest-grade zone of the aureole, with significantly higher temperatures than previously estimated for the area. This study applied phase equilibria pressure-temperature modeling, petrography, Raman spectroscopy, and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology on muscovite to characterize this anomalous metamorphism and to place it within a revised tectonic framework. Two potentially coeval prograde metamorphic events have been recognized based on petrographic …

Climate Migration And Urban Survival: Evidence From Chittagong’S Slums, Mohammad Nur Nobi

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the impact of climate change on rural-to-urban migration in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Based on a primary survey of 400 respondents across 35 slums in the country's second-largest city, the analysis employs two estimation methods: a multinomial logit model to assess the influence of climate-related factors on migration decisions, and a logit model to evaluate the impact of migration on the living conditions of migrants. The results show that individuals involved in ‘agriculture and daily labor’ are most likely to migrate. Compared to the base category (‘Other Reasons’) for migration, the odds ratios for ‘floods’, ‘droughts’, and ‘better job …

Sensitivity Studies Of Vector-Like Quark (Vlq) Pair Production In The Full-Hadronic Channel At The High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (Hl-Lhc) And A 10 Tev Muon Collider, Olabisi Olayinka

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Vector-like quarks (VLQs) appear in various extensions of the Standard Model that consider a new strongly interacting sector to resolve the fine-tuning problem. These new particles can provide radiative corrections to the Higgs mass while also having electroweak-singlet masses. This latter property would allow them to escape existing constraints from Higgs boson measurements and electroweak precision data, which disfavor the existence of a fourth generation of quarks.

VLQ can be produced at colliders, with a variety of production modes and decay mechanisms open for study. In this work, we investigate the pair production of VLQ Tops (T), which are assumed …

Development And Applications Of Capillary Vibrating Sharp-Edge Spray Ionization Coupled With Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization (Cvssi-Apci), Madison Elizabeth Pursell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Mass spectrometry (MS) is a technique that is used in fields in which both complex and non-complex mixtures are analyzed. The state-of-the-art ion sources that are utilized for MS are being demonstrated to be functional for direct infusion of samples as well as for use with online separations. However, ion sources, such as electrospray ionization (ESI) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) can encounter problems such as ion suppression and an inability to ionize based on size and/or polarity, respectively. Further these sources are bulky and require gas flow, heat sources, and additional high voltage power supplies for optimal performance. …

Redox Control In A Fused Electron Transfer Flavoprotein From A Thermophilic Archaeon And Expanded Significance Of A Hydrogen Bond From A Conserved Histidine Residue That Contributes To Flavin Redox Tuning And Activation For Covalent Modification, Debarati Das

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

In absence of O₂ as terminal electron acceptors in anaerobic bacteria and archaea, carbohydrate metabolism is 15 times less efficient compared to aerobic energy metabolism resulting in energy deficit conditions. Despite their meager resources these anaerobes were able to generate H₂ and a chemiosmotic potential able to drive energy demanding reactions such as CO₂ or N₂ fixation. These observations raised concerns as production of high energy reductants (H₂) from mediocre fuels (NADH) defied the laws of thermodynamics.

In 2008, a known mechanism “electron bifurcation” but with flavins as redox mediators instead of quinones was …

Towards Automating The Study And Discovery Of Electroactive Π-Conjugated Molecules, Rebekah Ann Duke-Crockett

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Chemistry is entering a new paradigm of automation and data-driven discovery. Automated discovery is grounded in well-curated “big data.” As generative and predictive models fueled by simulation data see growing success, emerging robotic automation enables the generation of unprecedented volumes of experimental data. Automation-powered, data-driven approaches hold tremendous potential for groundbreaking insights and innovations, particularly in the study and discovery of electroactive π-conjugated molecules. Realizing this potential, however, requires democratizing chemical data and the automation needed to generate and use it. There is a need to expand access to the tools for findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) data management …